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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Here's the second of the two baby Christmas albums I've made for a custom order. This one is for a boy, so I used relatively more green than red (compared to the girl version). The green was making the album a little dark, so I used some silver and grey to lighten it a touch. (Video link at the end.)

Click for larger view.

The first hint of grey is on the front cover in the form of a pale grey teddy bear. I used 3 Copic greys to colour him. It took me 20 minutes just to make the bear! The front cover also showcases my handmade gifts and shopping bag.

Click for larger view.

This page features Santa. I got this Santa stamp (by Your Next Stamp) recently at Scrapfest. I used three Copics markers to colour his coat: two reds and a brown. I used this stamp in the last book. While I was cutting it out, I was thinking, I don't remember it being this fussy. Then, I realized that I had left a white border around him last time and this time I cut it right along the edges. The gifts on this page are a swing tab. They turn to the left and the panel with the chimney opens.

Click for larger view.

I was concerned that, while the green was helping the book to appear masculine, it wasn't coming out as youthful as the red book. Most of the candy papers are red, so those appear a lot more in the red book. So, I added a boy gingerbread man with blue accents and I snagged another super cute Santa in a chipboard sticker pack on Boxing Day at Michaels Craft Store. I did something different with a couple tags in this album. I partially cut a frame and then left the rest of the tag full. I though it looked quite like a cookie jar - so here we have Santa, the cookie jar we left out for him, and the letter to Santa (which was a cut-a-part from the paper collection).

Click for larger view.

I featured two swirly, glittered Christmas trees in this album. I had to cut them several times to get clean cuts, though. The other tree in the album is blue. If you want to see it and the other features of this album, just click on over to my Vimeo channel to watch the video:

I have used this paper stack to make four mini albums so far and I feel like I've used about 25% of it. So... expect to see this paper a lot! Also, I made mountains of scraps! Some of them, I used on my Christmas cards this year. For those of you attending my January Workshop, if you want to get a head start on your Christmas cards for next year, I've got the scraps!!

The Christmas tree is popped up from another printed tree beneath it for dimension. The red base is also popped up and then Norma added it to a white decorative frame. (You can see the layers better in the second picture, if you click for the larger view.)

I actually walked in on my MIL finishing up her Christmas cards and I had pointed this one out as rather nice. She had already decided it was the one we were getting. While she was somewhat miffed that I saw it ahead of time, she was also pleased to hear that I liked it before I knew it was destined for me!

Pearly Christmas Tree from family friends (made by Claire)

Claire used some flat-back pears to decorate her tree. The base card is also a pearl white. Claire added some sparkle to the boughs of her tree and the star too. (You can see it better in the second picture if you click for the larger view.)

Teal Snowflakes from my Dad and his partner (made by his partner, Maria)

Teal is among my favourite colours! I think it looks great with the grey and desert sand colour combination. These snowflakes are gorgeously intricate too. Maria put some clear bling on the snowflakes and the sentiment. (You can see them better in the second picture if you click for a larger view.)

All three ladies put a stamped sentiment (and hand written thoughts) on the insides. I composed a poem for our cards this year, printed it and then adhered it inside the cards - unless the card was not a standard A2 format. Then I had to write the poem by hand.)

I'm quite happy to get any holiday cards in the mail, whether hand made or not. It shows someone is thinking of you! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas, whatever way you are spending it!

Monday, December 22, 2014

I am not quite finished experimenting with binding systems for scrapbook mini albums. I have the other options ready for the trying but I don't have the time! Despite not having listed any mini albums for sale until I've figured which binding system I like best, I managed to get a custom order for albums!

Based on the Sweet Christmas scrapbook mini album, a lady who has purchased cards from me before wanted to have a couple of Baby's First Christmas Albums. They're not particularly "baby". I just made sure to use some bright colours and some of the same candy-themed papers that you saw in the Sweet Christmas Album. I think those appear sufficiently youthful.

Here's the first one! It's for a girl, so I used relatively more red.

(Click pictures for larger views.)

I made the gifts on the front with patterned paper on cardstock. On one, I used a border punch for the bow. One another, I used a flower die. On the gift bag, I used paper string for the handles. I put the baby's name on a teeny tiny gift tag. I wrote the title with my Brother Scan'N'Cut. That's the first time I've used the pen function on it. The nameplate and closures are Accucut Craft dies that I got on sale. The teddy bear, I stamped, cut out and coloured by hand (with Copic alcohol markers).

The back cover has a pocket-style waterfall made from envelopes (with hinges reinforced with Tyvek). I used my Winterland Tree die by Memory Box twice in this album. It's such a pretty die. I cut the tree in white here, stuck to some adhesive covered cardstock and poured red glitter into it.

I tried something new for me in this album: Swing Tabs. Swing tabs swivel out of the way to grant access to foldout pages. I think it's a fun way to interact with the pages. (Magnets are great too.) The gingerbread man above is an example of one of the swing tabs.

This album does not have pocket pages (by request). I prefer pocket pages because it's an easy way to add space for photos and stories without adding much bulk. In addition, the pockets give me a place to hide the Tyvek hing reinforcement, so the start white Tyvek is out of sight. Best of all, the pockets offer more protection for the photos in them.

Since I was not going to use envelopes for pocket pages and, therefore, had to measure out my pages, I decided to make the album bigger too. This one will fit a handful of 5x7 photographs. My customer does photography, so I thought she would really like to showcase some great photos.

For the binding, I made 3 signatures of 1/4 inch guttered pages. Then I adhered each signature separately to the spine with 1/4 inch spaces between them. So, it looks like a continuous 1/4 inch spaced page range. I used Tyvek to reinforce my page hinges and you can see the Tyvek on the outsides of each signature. That's why I went with white pages: so that I wouldn't have to colour the Tyvek. A non-mini-album maker would never notice it.

Friday, December 12, 2014

I'm still experimenting with mini albums: page designs, binding, construction, etc. Like my previously posted Sweet Christmas Mini Album, this album is also ribbon-bound. The single signature consists of three envelopes.

This time, I made the envelopes from Kraft coloured cardstock with my new A6 die. The base pages ends up at 6.5 x 4.5 inches, so they can still hold 4 x 6 photos, however, the envelope is small enough to cut from 8.5 x 11 paper (unlike my A7, 5 x 7 envelope).

Since the envelopes were darker, I went with a darker set of papers, but still from the same collection as the Sweet Christmas album. I think these colours are a touch more traditional. Plus too, I made this one with a gentleman in mind. I'm conspiring with his daughter to get this book filled with pictures of his grandchildren at Christmas.

I decided to go with a twine closure. I prefer the fiber wrap type of closure because everyone wanted to slide the ribbon off the Sweet Christmas one. To prevent it from getting lost, I adhered the ribbon on the back, so I lived in fear that someone was going to tear it right off! I like fiber type closures because they are expandable (as opposed to magnets or closed, slip-off style belly bands). If the album fattens up once you get pictures in it, you will still be able to close it.

With the pages being made from cardstock, I didn't have to double mat them (cardstock first and then patterned paper). In fact, I had intended not to! That way, more of the paper would show behind the pictures. But, I do like that solid border, so I did mat them anyway.

I've posted a video walk-through of this album on my Vimeo channel. It's listed as:

Sunday, December 7, 2014

It is a breeze to colour! I used Copic alcohol markers and one of my Pro-Marker alcohol markers.

I just love that little look of mischief on his face! I used a holly embossing folder on silver metallic cardstock behind him. I cut Frosty out and put him on foam tape. The sentiment is from a Stampendous greeting set. I stamped the inside too and added Frosty at the bottom of the card as just a grey outline for interest.

Click for larger view.

I coloured the brim of his hat with white glue and then poured Ranger's Rock Candy glitter over it. This card has a simple design, but I think it makes Frosty stand out really well. He's the star of the show for sure! This stamp works for masculine cards too - which I always find are harder to come up with than girly cards.

If only I had a die cut window.... I could put him in there! Wouldn't that be cute? He could be peeking over the top of a present too. That would even work for winter birthdays, since snow people represent winter and not necessarily the holidays. I'm very pleased with Frosty. I think I will make more cards like these for myself to use next year.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

This was the first stamp I ever bought from High Hopes Rubber Stamps. They have a whole collection of named angels and this one is Delia Angel. The challenge this week is to add silver to your card. I added my silver by using a silver glitter cardstock to mat this angelic image.

(Click image for larger view.)

I also used a silver metallic pen on the flecks of Delia's dress.

I've been on a Christmas mini album making binge of late, so I had all
these holiday scraps. I layered some strips up to mat one side of this
card and I embossed the other side with a CTMH Quarterfoil embossing
folder.

(Click image for larger view)

I have to admit, this stamp image is quite large and there are a lot of things to colour, so I haven't used it as much as I thought I would. Enter: Watercolouring! I actually found it much faster to watercolour this image than to use my alchohol markers. The key
was to first emboss the image. Once I embossed it, I didn't have to
wait for sections to dry and the raised embossing acted like a little
fence for the water. Fantastic! I used my Tombow Dual Brush tip water colour markers. I also used a larger card: 4.5 x 6 inches.

Friday, November 21, 2014

I wanted to make an envelope scrapbook album in portrait orientation. All the ones I've made in the past have been landscape orientation. I know that most people take pictures in landscape orientation, but albums look more book-like when they are in portrait orientation. So, I went ahead and did it and I love how it tuned out! I tried a new style of binding too: ribbon!

I really enjoyed making this album. [Spoiler: I have two more like it on the go and one with a 1/4 inch guttered spine.]

I used all sweets related pages from a Recollections paper stack to make this album. My Accucut Craft gingerbread man die cut makes three appearances in the album! This cover cluster is my first cluster-style embellishment attempt. I love the look of them but find them hard to accomplish given my clean and streamlined style. Therefore, my version of a cluster embellishment is of the flat variety, as opposed to the bulky, three dimensional style. I popped up a single gift on foam tape.

I did a video walk-through of this album so you can see all the pages and interactive bits. I even included instructions on how to tie a bow at the end! You can see my Sweet Christmas Envelope Mini Album on my Vimeo channel. I love the thinness of this album (clean and streamlined!). Despite being made from only three envelopes, it holds a surprisingly decent number of photos! Something like 15 full-sized 4 x 6 inch photos and 20 or so wallet sized ones (the mini 2.5 by 3.5 inch ones). (That's the count if you do zero journalling in the album though.)

Saturday, November 15, 2014

It's mitten wearing weather, these days! Challenge #242 over at High Hopes Rubber Stamps is "Winter Mittens". High Hopes have A LOT of winter themed characters, many with mittens! There are all kinds of images to choose from.

I used Snowlady Surprise. From what I've seen, High Hopes is a trend setter in having so many snow people of the female persuasion. (Yeah!) They have a whole line of snow people - even a cowboy! I really like this particular snow lady image though because of the dress coat. I love those kinds of jackets!

Even though the snow lady is wearing mittens, I added a die cut pair too with some twine. This shape is one of my old Quickcutz shapes that I haven't used in forever (mostly because I forgot it had it). I love how challenges help me to rifle through my stuff and use up those oldies-but-goodies.

The background is another patchwork scrap paper mat, the full size of the card. (Yep, I'm still going strong with my scraps! I really like the randomness of the look!) I added some twine and the mittens to the background. I coloured Snowlady Surprise in alcohol markers: both Copic and Letraset Tria markers. The mittens were entirely Trias - three shades of cool grey.

There's still time to enter the challenge yourselves! I'd love to see more participation in the High Hopes challenges. They have so many great images and they are a family-owned small business. I admit, their stamps tend to be on the bigger side, but that just makes them great focal images (and a touch easier to colour)! The size of this snow lady works for cards, but it also large enough to work on a scrapbook page. Check them out!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

I've been having a lot of fun mixing up my scraps to make patchwork backgrounds. When I am able to trim the edges of my patchwork piece and see only slivers left, I am finally comfortable throwing those pieces away.

Apparently, the feeling is catching. Here's are some cards my friend Claire was inspired to make with her scrap pieces. (Click any photos for a larger view.)

This Christmas card would be perfect for giving to a man with its plaid and darker colours. I always find those among the harder kind of cards to make!

On this blue one, Claire used some glitter cardstock scraps. I know how reluctant I am to get rid of specialty paper scraps. This idea works well for those! In the corner, she clear embossed a nativity stamp image over the blue cardstock. I like the subtle look of it.

This one is my favourite! The penguin is adorable. The green and red papers on the sides plus the green bunting that the penguin in the patterned paper holds all echo the colours of the focal stamped penguin image. This is a truly pieced patchwork card card too. I like the coverage from the mixed patterned papers.

I've been sifting through my scraps too. I'm making some cards for my grandmother. I showed you some I made with my black and white scraps before, and here I have another!

My grandmother does not like dimensional elements on her cards, so I used black Stickles glitter glue instead of brads or buttons at the sides. I coloured the balloons with my alcohol markers and then added the polka dots with a white gel pen.

If you haven't tried making "Scrap Mats" out of your paper scraps, you should! Even though I'm using different colours (all in monochromatic themes per card right now), the cards are unified by their patchwork style. You could easily make some gifts sets this way!

I only have a very pale, barely there grey and black, so I used the black very sparingly and lots of water. I think it turned out nice and crisp!

I used a Darice embossing folder on the top to emboss the gears into Bazzill Tungsten metallic grey cardstock. I added some Stampin' Up! gumball green ribbon to hide the paper seam. I like the smaller polka dot paper with this one. It reminds me of those tests where you had to circle the dot for the answer and the cards got fed into a machine for reading.

I'm telling you, though, red is hard to work with. Whether it's watercolour or alcohol markers, red is my nemesis. I had to do so much fixing when the red bled into my robot's body! I do like how the balloon turned out on this one, though. I finally got the "fade to white" look to work!

Robots definitely make "boy cards" a whole lot easier to make! There are plenty of fabulous robot stamps on the market, but I particularly like this one. It reminds me a little of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. Don't you think?

Monday, November 3, 2014

I have a new video today about how I alter notepads. Most of mine go Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children via the volunteer group: Smiles4SickKids. We make cards for the children to brighten their day and also Thank-You cards for the nurses. The nurses like to get altered notepads too so they can hand them out to parents who need to write down important medical information.

I get notepads from donating to charities. I keep them by the fridge for lists, by the phone for messages, and also by my computer for ideas. However, I still have more than I will use myself. I'd like to give them away but they have my name on them. Solution: alter them!

Monday, October 20, 2014

I'd like to share with you an idea I saw in a youtube video some time ago: Scrap Mat Tutorial. This person made what she calls Scrap Mats from the scraps of a leftover project. What a great idea! You know the papers go together and you know you already like that combination. Why not collage it together? (To see more of her lovely creations, you can check out her blog!)

So, I finally tried it out but I did it a little differently. She uses tape on the back to hold the mat together before adhering it to her project. I ran a mat piece through my Xyron 5-inch Creation Station. Then, I layered my strips on to the sticky mat and then trimmed the edges. I don't sew, but some paper crafters do. I think a stitched edge on these mats would be a great finishing touch!

I made these three cards.

On the first one, I used a stinkin' cute sentiment from Your Next Stamp and bat die cuts that I designed myself for my electronic die cutter.

Then I got the idea to cut the mat into a shape. So, I used my Victorian background die on the next card. The stamps are from Close to My Heart and I watercolour painted the bear with Tombow Markers.

On the last one, I used a Santa Claus stamp from Your Next Stamp. I didn't mat the scrap mat, since I liked the white and red contrast. I used Copic Markers to colour Santa and a Copic Green glitter pen to colour the sentiment. It took a long time to colour such a tiny image! But I do love the result.

I used a thin cardstock as my mat base, but you could use ugly patterned paper. (You know it. We all buy paper stacks that have a least one ugly design!) If you use a patterned paper as the base, then it won't be as heavy when you layer the mat on a card.

Other ideas for scraps include:

Quilt blocks, instead of strips

Paper piecing. Stamp on your scraps and cut them out to piece on to the stamped image

Monday, October 13, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving! I had the urge to make a mini album. So, I went ahead and did it. It's not yet done, but I've made the mats and tags for it. I haven't decided if I will further embellish them. The smallest tags however, are meant for journaling. They are too small for pictures but just right for a small snippet of a story: a place, time, date, title or quote.

I needed a way to make lines on them and I read about masking the sides and drawing across them. So, I pulled out some graph paper to help me line it up and I really liked how it turned out. I made a (silent) video tutorial of how I drew the lines on my scrapbook tags, including masking off some stamping on them.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

We made some hand made Christmas cards this weekend in my workshop. We used the shaker card style of cards. We've made a shaker card before using a frame made from cookie-cutter dies that graduate in size. I wanted to show my crew how you can make a shaker card with just one die. We basically made a face plate for the front of the card.

I made two Christmas shaker cards and two, more general, winter shaker cards. Here are the Christmas ones. The buildings are from a gorgeous Close to My Heart stamp set called Christmas Village Holiday. The sentiment on the red and white card comes from the same set.

You see? The cut out acts like a snow globe and the snow is made of micro beads. You shake it around and the beads go everywhere - like a snow storm (plus it makes a fun sound). The poinsettia in the first card is an Accucut Craft die cut.

"Merry Christmas" on the second card came from a sale bin at Michaels Craft Store. I also used a technique shared by Gina K. Designs on how to partially emboss a border with your embossing folders. I love this idea! I used it on the two winter cards too:

These adorable penguins are a Stampendous stamp. I coloured my Penguins with Copic warm grays: (W1, W3 and W6). I coloured the hats with BIC Mark-Its: Misty Blue and Lime Sorbet. The string of lights came from a holiday set of dies from Lifestyle Crafts (once Quickutz; now part of We R Memory Keepers). Actually, the giant ornament snow globe cut out shape is from that same holiday set.

The last one I did is this snowman. I snagged the Snowman Delight stamp set from Your Next Stamp at their booth at Scrapfest this past weekend. I had to try him out right away as he was a perfect fit for the ornament.

A great thing about using a themed punch or die is that a) it's less fussy than getting the frames nested just right and b) you can use both pieces! We used the negative for the shaker card but you can also use the positive to embellish another card.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

A while ago, I posted about a 5x7 dog-themed mini scrapbook album that I made and submitted to the Accucut Craft Grandemark challenge. [Didn't win anything though.] I finally fixed up the video for it so you can see a live walk-through of the pages.

I really like how the pocket pages have the V-neck cut out in the die that I used [A7 Jacket Card #1 from Accucut Craft]. Feel free to click on over to my Vimeo Channel to see this album.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

I coloured this robot with my Crayola washable markers. These markers are not meant for artists but they work if you just want to test your watercolouring skills. The grey in the Crayola set has a brown tinge. I thought that patina suited the metal robot just fine!

I adore this stamp. He's just so cute and perfect for men! High Hopes has some coordinating sentiments that work perfectly for their robot line up.

I cut this stamp out on my new Brother Scan'N'Cut machine. I had to scan him a few times to get it to recognize him though, which seemed odd to me because his lines are clearly defined. I got it to work though and the outline is great. It didn't go between the antennae or the balloon string and the arm. I wouldn't have fussy cut between the antennae myself, but I would have done the arm. The narrowest point between the string and the arm is less than the outline I set (0.04"), which is why the machine didn't go up there. I think I could get it to cut a second shape inside there, but I'm just new to it for now. I'll play with it more later!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

I attended a 10-year-old boy's birthday picnic in the park the other day. I had to make a card super fast. When I need instant inspiration, I turn to sketches. I made this card using the Deconstructed Sketch #163.

I really like the Deconstructed Sketches because they strike a great balance between complexity and simplicity. I find a lot of challenges (especially colour ones) have too much going on. I find them overwhelming. Deconstructed Sketches, though, they have a great blend between interest and clarity.

Here's my dragon card:

I think this image is so sweet. It's part of the Sweet November line from C.C. Designs. I coloured it with Copic markers. I swiped my grey ink pad over the sentiment strip to create that texture. I made this card lightning fast compared to my normal rumination and creation pace. The next day, I thought of the poem for the inside while on lunch at work. The day after that, the card went to the recipient!

I used three colours of Copics: a base colour, a mid tone and a dark tone. The mid and dark tones I simply dotted over the image which I completely covered in the base tone (the lightest colour).

I fussy cut around the bottom and tail so I could fit the sentiment underneath. I hope this card was enjoyed! Funny thing, the gift sort of went with it. It was completely unplanned this way but we got Grimlock, the Dinobot as the gift. Dragon, dinosaur, close enough!

I've since made a few more with different dragon colours and papers. It was pretty simple!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

A while back, I picked up a set of Bic Mark-It alcohol markers. When I got them home, I wanted to compare them to my Copic Markers. I also purchased a pair of alcohol markers from Close to My Heart. (The CTMH ones were sold in pairs: a dark one and a light one of the same tone. Now, CTMH sells Shin Han Touch Twin alcohol markers now instead.)

So, I coloured some butterflies up and I'm going to share with you how it turned out.

I did not have all the exact same colours, but I tried to get them close. I like teal, so that's what I tried first.

On the left, we have the Copic markers: BG10 and BG72. (Normally, you wouldn't blend a 1 and a 7 in Copics but I eyeballed them in the store and I thought they worked well together.) The copics blended the best.

In the middle, we have the CTMH markers in Twilight. I found the gap between the light and dark to be quite large. Even though you can see the two tones quite clearly, I think I managed to get them to blend well enough.

On the right, we have the Bic Mark-Its in Tranquil Teal and Hot Aqua. These take a little longer to get the blending effects to work. Again, these two colours were a little farther apart then I would have liked, but I think they still blended nicely. I'm quite happy with my purchase of the Bic Mark-Its. It's great value for money and a great way to experiment with alcohol markers. Even though one of my markers came out bone dry and, when I sent it back, they sent me free stuff but not the marker I needed because they were out - despite that, still good value for money.

I wanted to see what other colours I could marry up in the Bic Mark-Its, so I tried some other combinations.

On the left, I used Pink Flamingo and Desert Rose. On the right, I used Fandango Pink and Plumtastic Purple. (What?) Yeah - purple and hot pink. Based on the cap colours, I would not have tried these colours. However, I know that cap colours are not always perfect. So, I pulled off the caps and tried them on a piece of scrap paper and I really liked how they worked together. They were farther apart then I would have liked, so I did have to work at it a little bit. It worked with the teal, why not with the pinks, right?

Here's a closer look at them.

They came out remarkably similar. The purple served to create a darker shade but, really, these two look like they came from a consecutive array of colours.

These are all great markers. I still notice that the Copics are a cut above but, are they so far ahead as to justify the price? Perhaps not for the casual crafter. (Totally for the serious artist though - and those who enjoy imagining we're one!)

Thank-you for visiting!

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About Me

Chartered Professional Accountant by profession; paper crafter by passion. I
occasionally teach card-making workshops and other paper art classes and donate a portion of the amounts raised to a local animal rescue. Crafting keeps me sane! I love paper die cuts
and sometimes design my own. If you have any questions, you can contact
me from one of my shops, linked from my blog: www.fairycardmaker.com